Remember when you got email in the early to mid 90s? Every time you got an email you felt a touch of excitement as you opened it, wondering what you would find inside. Not any more. Today you get so many unwanted emails, you may even have multiple email accounts with one serving solely as your junk mail account. Ben Reed is a small group pastor who is very intuitive regarding technology. In today's post, Ben shares some tips that will help insure the emails you send don't wind up in the junk box! ~ChurchTeams

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If you want none of your emails read, read my posthere. But, since you’re readingthispost, my guess is that you would prefer an increasing amount of your virtual letters to be read and acted upon.Am I right?

Whether you like it or not, you’ve got to send emails.

On a daily basis, I’m sending and receiving hundreds of emails. And when I send an email I hope it gets read. I spend time crafting exactly what I want to say. I take out the extraneous. I boil it down to the essentials. And I hit “send.”

Ifyouput time into an email,youexpect people to read it too, right?

10 Tricks to getting your Emails Read

Bold the things you want read. Understand that every word won’t be read. By “bolding” the important words, you ensure that they’ll be read.

Start your email with the most important things. Again, assume people won’t read ever word.

Leave an action statement at the bottom. Many times, people will read the first few sentences and the last few. Make sure you catch them before they hit “delete.”

Break your email into two sections: short and long. Be explicit with what you’re doing. In the “short” section, just give bullet points. No explanations, just the facts. In the “long” section, elaborate on each point a little bit, giving people more details if they want to read more.

Include your main point in the subject line.

Include an action step in the subject line. This may not guarantee that your email will be read, but it will ensure that what you want done because of the email gets done.

Use numbered lists. People are more likely to read your email if they know that there are only __ points in it. Lists are magical.

Less is more.Keep your emails under 250 words. Anything more deserves a phone call. Or a cup of coffee. Or both.

Cc their superior.This is a ninja move. Itcouldget you what you want. But it could get you enemies just as quickly.

Never FWD junk email.Never. It breaks trust rather than building it.

Ben Reed is the small groups pastor at Long Hollow, a multi-site church in the Nashville, TN, area. He holds an Mdiv from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Ben is also an avid coffee drinker and CrossFitter, but not at the same time. Visit Ben Reed at www.benreed.net